Review: AFFLUENZA at Riverside Studios

Here, in the opening scene to the production, Schnapp plays Dylan, an entitled and coddled son to wealthy West Coast parents (Juliet Cowan and Donald Sage Mackay). We first encounter them attempting to reason with the slick defence lawyer (Rupert Young) whom they have flown-in at great expense from New York, but who appears reticent at the prospect of defending their boy who will stand trial for committing multiple deaths due to drunk driving. Dylan seems incapable of owning his actions, believing it was an unfortunate accident. Worse still, the injustice of being grounded when all his friends are out enjoying the summer sunshine, seems to be his primary focus rather than the seriousness of his situation. In this cloud of youthful delusional detachment from reality, the lawyer senses an opportunity to mount a realistic, if somewhat left-field defence, which raises all manner of ethical questions for us to ponder.

Twenty years on, and Dylan is one marriage down, and a somewhat faded minor celebrity. Forced by financial circumstances and the insistence of his trailer-trash girlfriend (Wallis Currie-Wood), he has admitted Reality TV cameras into the home he inherited from his parents after beating the manslaughter rap decades earlier. Now played by Rupert Young, the washed-up middle years version has a messed-up son of his own (Noah Schnapp again) who rails against being trapped in the eternal twilight zone of his father’s mistakes. Juliet Cowan reappears (and underplays deliciously) as the jaded-but-keeping-it-real director of the daytime, ratings-conscious, TV train-wreck. Fleshing-out scenes with sharply realised character parts is dancer-actress Janette Manrara who manages to squeeze as much juice as possible from her Mexican housemaid and overly commission-conscious Hispanic defence lawyer.

Everyone tries their best to lift the material which despite a rock solid premise and strong opening, meanders into surreal territory with clunkily-written linking scenes and the over-egged Reality TV segment. The American legal system potboiler, shackled awkwardly to Kardashian-esque excess, is the kind of grotesquery which may not appeal to the average British sensibility, but it makes for some (and I stress, some) interesting and amusing fly-on-the-wall moments.

AFFLUENZA runs just over 2 hours with interval and is scheduled to continue at Riverside Studios until 28th November having already been extended, no doubt due to the appeal of its 22 year old celebrity cast member (who I suspect would be the first to concede, is largely eclipsed by the more experienced players in his orbit).

Affluenza Tickets